I spoke too soon. No closing until July. In the meantime enjoy some pics of the new farm:

Yup that's the barn

The field across the road, see the trees at the edge of the field- there's another 50 acres of them back there!!! That hill is HIGHLAND FOREST- kind of nice to have such a nice hill to look at. Reminds us of the old place- just way more land. Remember 26 acres? Now it is 150!!!! I need a compass or GPS!!!! Or as Cam says him and the labrador!

Nice house and garage for the farm stand. Big maple trees for shade, swings, picnic tables under. There are 33 acres on this side of the road- even a small waterfall!!!!

This is Parker, with his mother Dandy in the background (he's about 6 weeks old)

and this is Thor with Momma Ruby. (he is about 2 weeks old, Daddy is our highlander bull)

These are on pasture at the inlaws place. Those 2 boys sure can zoom around fast and snuggle up together for a nap later on. Mother in law thinks they are just adorable- hey they sure are!

YIPPEEEE!!!!

Yes it is really happening- we will be moving in before July!!!!

150 acres, house, garage, barn, fields, woods, creek, waterfall......

Cazenovia and Deruyter Resevoir here we come!!!!

WE got a new farm!!!!

Woohooo!!!! WE got one! We are waiting for the paper work to go through then..... moving in the next few weeks- hopefully.

So where? Just over the county line in Madison County, past Highland Forest.

It is 150 acres, house, garage, barns, woods, fields, creeks, waterfall, grass, trees, HEAVEN!!!

MAY!!!!!

May is one of my favorite months. Well my birthday is a few days away and that is ALWAYS a good day!!!!
So we still have no new permanent farm. Okay so this sacrificing for our dream is getting old. 5 months and counting....... to anyone ever deciding to follow in our footsteps..... plan plan plan then well..... plan for even more time........ Then just forget the plan altogether!!!!!

So What's up here at the temporary farm? Grass is growing and fast. FINALLY! but those pesky April showers are following us into May. We are dry and safe. Very thankful for that.

The 10 beef steers and 1 bull have moved back to the old farm. Pretty amazing really. Dan and Stephanie that bought it are so nice and said the boys could come back and do some grass management (aka grazing /mowing). Sunday we made 4 trips to get them all down there. Some boys just hopped on the trailer and some decided nope they were NOT getting on there. 3 young ones did some not so amusing antics of jumping fence, going under fence, running faster than us, then finally hopped on the trailer. Once the 3 stragglers arrived to see their daddy and brothers busy grazing really green and thick grass- they figured out trailer rides were just fine.

We kept Molly (our milking jersey) and the 2 cows at home. All are pregnant. Molly isn't due until July 20th but the 2 hereford girls are due any day now. Both are showing all the signs of labor beginning soon. Their back end area is getting puffy, they hold their tails away from their bodies, their udders are filling with milk, they kick at their sides (like that calf is doing acrobatics inside!!) and generally uncomfortable.

Cam's duck Queen had a massive pile of eggs under her and successfully hatched 2 ducklings and 2 turkeys...... That is all.

Lucy the goose was setting on eggs for over a month. All were not fertile. She is very skinny and is now out grazing. We are trying to find her a few babies to maybe adopt..... We are pretty sad about it- she so wanted to be a mom.

We have 10 piglets now. 5 small black ones that just moved to the woods. And 5 larger ones that are at the neighbor's tilling up next years garden. We will get another 5 or 10 in the coming months.

The future farm? We are hoping and trying really really really really hard to purchase a place just over the county line in Madison County. We found out that there is another buyer involved. In fact said buyers called us up and wanted a meeting. Seems people feel that they can tell us what to do and what we need. They have no idea where their food comes from nor do they care. They thwarted a previous deal the sellers had to subdivide the property. Now the thwarters want to buy it, subdivide it themselves . See they own land nearby and want even more to hunt deer. Nevermind some of us are actually doing something with our lives and feed people......... not subdividing land, attempting to manipulate and bully people........

I'm glad to know all our customers and know they are quality people- people who care about the land, the farmers and where their food comes from. You all ROCK!!!!

I recently got this email from a long time and much loved customer.

Hi Tricia,

As we approach Earth Day, I just wanted to say Thank You for providing us with delicious, healthy, environmentally-friendly meat. We don't have to worry about pesticides and hormones and can relax knowing we are eating grass-fed wholesome meat and not corn disguised as meat.

I hope you find a new farm soon and can make it a happy place to raise your animals and family. I'll be checking in on your blog and can't wait for this year's "crop."

E.

This is just one of many emails and comments we get. We love them and really appreciate it. It was a particurly rotten day when I read this and wow is it a power booster!!!!

Here is Cam with Grandpa Park and the International 350 Cam put together this winter. Grandpa bought it 18 years ago, it didn't run, he took it apart and that was that. Cam found all the hundreds of parts in many boxes stored in many different sheds...... and put it together himself. It runs!!!! Pretty awesome. Here is Cam with Willy after the last snow storm. He was trying to get Willy over the pile but ended beaching it there. Then it ran out of gas. He had to get the 4 wheeler out to pull Willy back to level ground.

AND now the cute adorable adventurous 5 little pigges we just got. Their mom was red with black spots (duroc hampshire cross) and Dad was all black. These girls are all black with lots of hair (keeping them warm!). This was their first day outside. Their house is a 8 foot round poly calf hutch. Then we took some chainlink gates, wired them together to make an outdoor pen for them. Once they get a bit bigger we'll put up their plastic net fencing for a large area- right now they could probably go right through that.

4/5/11 we got piggies!!!

Sunday we made a trip to the north shore of Oneida lake to pickup 5 little piggies. It was a nice little farm a young couple had started. A few pigs, chickens, goats and cows. All nicely cared for. We bought 5 female piggies and they are all black. A first time getting black ones- they are a mix though. Father is black (not sure what exact breed) Mother is a duroc hampshire cross- she is red with black spots. All the babies were black and very hairy. ADORABLE!!! They are in the field at the inlaws inside a large round calf hutch for shelter. We'll keep them in there for atleast another week until we get some more warm temperatures. They have a thick layer of hay and straw to snuggle in. They are pretty friendly when I feed, they pop up out of they bedding to snort then come over for some scratching on their heads. We have the first of the meat chickens scheduled to arrive next week! SPRING IS HERE!!! Cam has a goose setting on 15 egs- oh boy! A muscovy duck is sitting on a dozen duck eggs and some turkey eggs. Seems the turkey hens don't have the nesting instinct at the moment and prefer the duck nest or even the chicken nest. But they can't fit in the chicken nest so we find the egg just outside of it. We might just have a duck hatching out turkeys- should be interesting to see if she'll raise them too (or if we end up handling that). I'm at my parent's today watching the snow fall- WHAT? So not fair. Last year on April 15th we were grazing cows (that would be in 11 days...). It won't be happening that soon this year. I'm hoping for the 22nd......

Castrating, bullies and planting the garden!

Where oh where did that sun go now that I found my sunglasses???? Come back here!
I'm trying to ignore the predicted snow for tomorrow. Really I might just not get out of bed tomorrow if it is snowing!!!! ha, yeah right.

So this past weekend we looked at another farm. We made an offer. We'll see how that goes.
50-50 chance of it right?

We also finally castrated last years 5 bull calves. It went pretty well. We invested in a very nice (and pricey) bander castrator last year called Callicrate Bander. Think really thick rubber bands and a crimper.
The boys have more of a fit when I give them an injection for Tetanus (really a 1/2 20 guage needle is a mild prick). Then we put an ear tag in one ear- just to help us tell them apart and for the butcher's paperwork.
So some we just walked up to and slipped a halter over their head, walked them over to a post or feeder wagon, tied them to that, Cam and I lean against them and rub their backs while Matt crouches down behind them to do the castrating. 3 went really easy- they were the youngest ones. The older highlander and hereford were not so happy with being restrained and poked with a needle. Once we are done, they hop and gallop off with the others. This is so much easier than other ways to castrate (think knife and blood). They are slightly uncomfortable for a bit but are back to being hay eaters and pushing each other around. Nice.
So we decided it was time for Molly to come out of her pen under the pine trees and mingle with the herd. She is still nursing a calf so he came out to. He is almost as big as her! He is half jersey half Ayrshire- we got him from our friends at Wake Robin, Jordan NY (yogurt!!!).
The highlander herd would have none of her. One boy- 2 year old trouble maker- crashes into her then proceeds to ram her until she slides under the fence on her knees. This takes dominace attitude to far! After chasing Molly down- she had headed for her old pen- I checked her over. Phew she seems okay. So I put a halter on her and try this again- with stick in hand for attitude adjustment if needed. Yup, the bullys came back. A little tap of the stick on their nose and they back off, circle around back to try that way. So after a few minutes of this rodeo- it was decided it wouldn't work.
So we put Molly and baby in the corral, blocked it off with a gate so they can talk over the fence. MAYBE they can all calm down.
I go out to feed her this morning and 3 boys and the bull are all standing at her gate pushing on it. This is really to much. so I put up an electrified wire and that ended that.
I'm having a feeling Molly might not be bred- she was bred in October!!! Looks like I need to draw some blood from her for pregnancy testing. She hates needles. oh joy.......
I'm hoping all this is because of the huge full moon and it's now SPRING!!!
Spring fever!!!

I planted lettuce, spinach, chard and carrots in my inlaws garden... Almost time to get some peas in also. We get warmer in the valley in spring- compared to those hill around us.
Can't wait to see some local asparagus soon!!!